WHUFC.com
John Carew is focused on putting things right when the Hammers travel to
Crystal Palace on Saturday
28.09.2011
John Carew insists he and his West Ham United team-mates will be working
hard to eradicate the mistakes that caused Tuesday's 1-0 npower Championship
defeat by Ipswich Town. The Hammers were not at their fluent best against
the Tractor Boys, but looked like gaining a goalless draw before a series of
defensive errors allowed Lee Bowyer to fire in an 89th-minute winner. The
goal represented the fourth time this season that West Ham have conceded in
the final stages of a match - a record that has cost them four league points
and their place in the Carling Cup. On the attacking front, the Hammers did
not create the clear-cut chances they would have hoped at the Boleyn Ground,
being largely reduced to long-range efforts and hopeful crosses into the
Ipswich penalty area. Experienced striker Carew said the squad, who returned
to training on Wednesday morning, were determined to put things right. "We
conceded a goal in the last minute again, as we've done too many times
already this season, so we're very disappointed. "We were hoping to create
more at home. We're always aiming to create more chances and stuff, but we
obviously couldn't so I'm sure we'll sit down and talk about it to work out
what went wrong. "We also need to work on not conceding goals in the last
minute. The manager is not happy about that - nobody is."
Carew will hope to make his first league start for the club at Crystal
Palace on Saturday - a fixture that could see him face Norway team-mates
Steffen Iversen and Jonathan Parr. Striker Iversen, 34, has partnered Carew
regularly at international level, with both being part of Norway's squad at
the 2000 UEFA European Championship finals, while 22-year-old winger Parr
has been a revelation since joining the Eagles from Aalesund in July 2011.
While he will enjoy meeting his compatriots, West Ham's No11 said he will be
focusing all of his efforts on ensuring his side leave Selhurst Park with a
victory. "We just have to get over this disappointment and we will start to
think about the next game from Wednesday morning. "It will be nice to see
Steffen and Jonathan again, but I am not thinking of them right now."
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Lansbury gets England call
WHUFC.com
The 20-year-old midfielder Henri Lansbury has been named in the England U21
squad
28.09.2011
Henri Lansbury has been called up by England for the forthcoming 2013 UEFA
European Under-21 Championship qualifiers against Iceland and Norway. The
Hammers midfielder was the star man earlier this month, with three goals in
two wins for the U21s against Azerbaijan and final tournament hosts Israel.
England coach Stuart Pearce watched Lansbury in action last Saturday against
Peterborough United and the 20-year-old is set to be at the heart of his
starting lineup. England will travel to Reykjavik to face Iceland on
Thursday 6 October before taking on Norway in Drammen on Monday 10 October.
Lansbury has been capped eleven times at U21 level, having previously
represented his country at every youth age-group.
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Allardyce on... Ipswich Town
KUMB.com
Filed: Wednesday, 28th September 2011
By: Staff Writer
Sam Allardyce was left to bemoan yet another late goal conceded at the
Boleyn - and ponder how to pick his team up for this weekend's trip to South
London...
Another late goal, Sam?
Terrible, isn't it?
We thought we'd learnt our lesson and clearly we've not done that tonight.
You know, I try to keep telling the players about respecting the points and
how important it is, because coming out of that at 0-0 would have been a
good point for us to me because I din't think we were at our best,
particularly in the first half.
But that glitch in our play has cropped up again and now everybody casts
their minds back. Everybody, all the fans will go, "oh, here we go again;
Cardiff, Leeds United and now Ipswich". We can ill-afford to throw points
away as early [in the season] as this but more importantly, at Upton Park.
That's four points that have been thrown away in the final minutes of a game
of football on three occasions here.
So, we really have to eradicate that because we have to make those point up
when we play away from home - and whilst we've been magnificent in terms of
our results away from home, we won't always keep going away and winning.
Not winning this game today, losing two, winning two and drawing one; if we
want to go where we want to go, it isn't good enough. If we'd lost one,
drawn two and won two that's good enough. Those two losses and that one draw
against Leeds have all been down to our lack of understanding and lack of
determination in the last minute of a game of football.
Do you think it was a wasted opportunity given results elsewhere?
My concern obviously is the results here, after tonight. That's my concern.
I know it's early doors and the team are a new team put together but it
doesn't stop you being organised and professional in the final minutes of
the game because everybody in our dressing room, apart from one or two of
the younger element - and there's not too many of them - are vastly
experienced players who've seen it all before - and at a higher level than
this.
That's what disappoints me, that taking responsibility in the dying embers
of the game to do the right thing. Let's face it, it isn't a great goal from
Ipswich. It isn't something that I can say, "look, there's little or nothing
we could have done to prevent that goal". It's a big punt down our right
hand side by the goalie; the header wasn't good enough, it comes off the top
of our defender's head for a corner instead of just heading it back out for
a throw-in. The corner was not defended properly and it falls to Lee Bowyer
and he scores.
So it's those small errors that, when you put them all together, you end up
with Ipswich winning a game today that we shouldn't have allowed them to. I
didn't think we deserved to win it, but I certainly don't think we should be
losing games at that stage of the game any more from now on.
What was missing for you today?
I would say you've got to give the opposition great credit. For one, I think
they're a very good side and I think that we might have just let a little
bit of complacency creep in - which we sorted out at half time and really
got better in the second half. But then, in terms of goalscoring
opportunities, that was a little bit worrying today.
We had plenty of goalscoring opportunities against Peterborough not
converted - that's why I put Sam Baldock in today, that's why I changed the
system today. One through injuries and two by the fact that the last two
games have not produced any goals apart from a penalty by Mark Noble.
Unfortunately, with the way we played today we got worse instead of better
and we had to really change it in the first 20 minutes to stop Ipswich going
on in the ascendancy, which we did.
Then, in the second half, we came out and got a lot, lot better. But [give]
Ipswich a lot of credit - and perhaps [there was] a touch of complacency
from our players. We've really got to work at our game and continue to put
this one behind us and look for three points at Crystal Palace now and
finish the week off with some points.
Do the players feel intimidated playing here?
I don't think so; I mean, why would they feel intimidated? Why would Kevin
Nolan, Abdoulaye Faye, Mark Noble...
Weight of expectancy?
Well there's bigger weight of expectancy in the Premier League, far bigger.
If you want to know about pressure, be in the Premier League and you'll know
what real pressure is. I mean even you lot get more pressure in the Premier
League than you do in this league. So I think that there's nobody in that
dressing room who can really say [that].
There's Mark Noble; there's Robert Green; there's Jack Collison who may feel
a little pressure based on they're West Ham players from the past and last
season wasn't a great season. But everybody else is new. And James Tomkins.
But everybody else is new. Joey O'Brien's new - played in the Premier
League; Abdoulaye Faye; George McCartney; Kevin Nolan; David Bentley; John
Carew - you know what I mean? Pressure for them's a pleasure. Pressure's a
pleasure. Not a hindrance.
Why were they so poor in the first half then?
Because the opposition were better than us.
How tough will the Crystal Palace game be after their win [at Brighton] this
evening?
Well we bounced back from Cardiff with a win at Doncaster but I think the
Crystal Palace game will be much harder than Doncaster was, because
Doncaster at that point hadn't got off to a very good start and were lacking
a bit of confidence - which unfortunately cost Sean O'Driscoll his job in
the end. So it'll be a tougher game than that, but based on our away form
and results then I expect us to be better than were today and that will give
us an opportunity to get a result at Palace.
Can I ask you about Ipswich? Having drawn at Middlesbrough on Saturday and
won tonight do you feel they are a side that could compete at the top in
this division?
Yeah, because for two years now they've spent a lot of money. I think Roy
[Keane] spent what, £18-20million in his first year, something like that?
Paul [Jewell] hasn't spent that much, he's picked up - like myself - some
good, experienced players that have got a lot of experience n the Premier
League. They've come together very nicely in the Coventry game and certainly
at Middlesbrough last week.
Today they've punished us so I think they're as good as we've met, I have to
say. We were poor and I was disappointed with the way we played - but some
of that you have to put down to how well Ipswich played.
Will you look to make changes in terms of the way you play?
We made changes today.
More?
No.
Has Matt Taylor got a chance of playing?
It depends how his injury is and how Winston Reid's injury is. So in terms
of selection today with the players we put in, we just felt playing with the
two up top, because of the players we've got, was the right thing to do.
Unfortunately it didn't work very well.
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Is Kevin Nolan part of the problem?
KUMB.com
Filed: Wednesday, 28th September 2011
By: Gary Portugal
Kevin Nolan is failing on all counts at the moment. Apart from the
occasional good pass, I cannot identify anything that he is contributing to
the team.
Nine games into the season he does not look fit, perhaps owing to time out
in the close season from an operation. But if that is the case, why play him
every match, especially for the full 90 minutes?
We cannot carry passengers and, in his current state of fitness, Nolan is
exactly that: a passenger. That he is captain should not mean that he is not
held accountable. It seems that he is not held to the same standard of
scrutiny as other players and we are paying a steep price for that.
For a start, including last night's game against Ipswich, he is too often
out of position, remaining forward and failing to track back. It is as if he
expects the rest of the midfield to do the hard graft. This in total
contrast to someone like Julien Faubert who is all over the pitch every
second that he is on it.
We are starting to get overrun in midfield, regardless of what formation we
play. This will allow any good passing team, especially one with the likes
of Bullard and Edwards, to pass us off the park. And when he has tracked
back, at times he just seems simply too slow. Is this down to fitness or did
Alan Pardew and Newcastle see something that we did not?
When we have possession, where are Nolan's runs into the box? Where is his
movement? All too often he looks frozen like a statue, content to perhaps
use his brawn and physical strength to give him an edge. Does he ever look a
threat in the opposition's box? Rarely. Then how can he justify remaining in
such an advanced position so often,exposing the rest of our midfield?
The next thing is the man's finishing. He has missed a number of very
presentable chances this season, notably against Forest, which fortunately
did not cost us. We spent a lot of money on this player and are paying him
very high wages. His immobility would be less of a liability if found the
back of the net.
Nolan also has a nasty habit of arguing the toss with referees and linesmen
to absolutely no effect. This was most evident against Peterbrough. Alll
that this does is galvanize opposition supporters and players. It makes him
and us look weak, as if we are babies throwing our toys out of the pram.
A captain should maintain his discipline and keep his head, and on a number
of occasions he has already failed to do so. Is it any wonder that fools
like Piquionne get themselves sent off when our own captain's discipline in
in doubt at times? Being passionate and determined is not about yelling at
referees.
Our Achilles heel remains our defence of set pieces, which is woeful. It's
no coincidence that Bowyer's winner resulted from a corner. Time and again
when we concede corners we look very vulnerable; there is no excuse for this
given the experience and physical presence we have.
Yet part of this is down to the captain, not just the manager. Surely the
captain, first and foremost, must ensure that we are well organized in such
situations. And if the opposition has one player who is clearly pulling the
strings, especially a midfielder like Bullard, then surely the captain has
to galvanize the troops to close that player down and deny him time and
space.
Finally, the dying minutes of a game is when you expect senior players to
stand up and be counted. To be professional and see it out. In particular
the captain. You expect all eleven players to be fully switched on and not
lacking an ounce of concentration. And who should be marshalling the troops
in those key final minutes? Nolan, of course.
Then why do we continue to concede not only late goals at the Boleyn Ground
that have cost us a total of four points against Cardiff, Leeds and Ipswich?
Clearly the captain of the side bears some responsibility for this,
especially given the scrappy, sloppy nature of some of these goals. It's not
like we are conceding to great strikes or great build-up. The nature of the
goals we are conceding late in games is incredibly poor.
Nolan clearly isn't the quickest of players. Nor is he a spring chicken. He
can't squeeze blood out of a stone. But surely he can put in more committed
and determined performances than he has thus far,and surely he can make
better use of his vast experience than he has thus far in a West Ham shirt?
It's sad to say, but this is the worst I have seen Nolan play in his career.
Is that what happens when you give a player a juicy long-term deal and make
him captain? Our current league position masks how poor Nolan has been this
season. But our points tally of just four points from the last nine
available exposes exactly how limited his contribution has been.
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Allardyce worried by West Ham's late struggles at Upton Park
By Kieran Daley
Thursday, 29 September 2011
The Independent
Sam Allardyce is becoming frustrated by West Ham's apparent failure to close
out home games
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has urged his players to turn Upton Park into
a fortress after ex-Hammer Lee Bowyer returned to haunt his former club with
a last-gasp winner for Ipswich. The game looked destined to end in a
stalemate until midfielder Bowyer pounced with a minute left to grab his
first Ipswich goal. This was the Hammers' first defeat in eight games, since
a 1-0 reverse against Cardiff on the opening day, but after seeing his side
concede a fourth late goal at home already this season, Allardyce knows
things must change. "We thought we had learned our lesson about conceding
late goals but clearly we haven't," he said. "I keep telling players to
respect the points and how important they are and I think a 0-0 would have
been a good point for us as we weren't at our best, particularly in the
first half.
"We can't afford to throw points away, and more importantly at Upton Park,
and that is four points we have thrown away late at home. This means we have
to make these points up when we go away and we won't keep winning away so we
need to sort it out. If we want to get to where we want to get to, then this
isn't good enough."
In a first half that lacked any real quality it was the visitors who could
count themselves unlucky not to find a goal: Michael Chopra was denied at
close range by Robert Green while Bowyer hit the post. Things failed to
improve after the restart but Ipswich stole all three points in the dying
minutes, Bowyer reacting quickest to a Keith Andrews header that hit the
post from a Jimmy Bullard corner to drill home. The Tractor Boys are now
unbeaten in three games, conceding none in the process, and Paul Jewell was
full of praise for his players despite some tired legs. "This was our third
game in eight days with pretty much the same squad and same team but I
thought we deserved the win, particularly the way we played in the first
half," the Ipswich boss said. "Football is a funny old game though and we
have a confidence in the team now where a month ago we looked bereft of
ideas and couldn't pick our feet up. "But since then we have had a change of
fortune, the players realise they are good players and they are full of
confidence."
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